Obama 'shocked' that Trump 'birther' issue is back

Friday, September 16, 2016 - 00:52

U.S. President Barack Obama declines to comment on news that Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has questioned Obama citizenship for years, was reportedly set to finally concede Obama is an American, but jokingly adds he's ''shocked'' the issue is still coming up. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

▲ Hide Transcript

▶ View Transcript

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)
STORY: U.S. President Barack Obama declined on Friday (September 160 to comment on news that Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who has questioned Obama citizenship for years, was set to finally concede Obama is an American.
But Obama jokingly also added that he was "shocked" to hear the issue was still coming up.
Trump was set to address President Barack Obama's citizenship on Friday, a day after he refused in a newspaper interview to say whether he believed Obama was born in the United States.
Trump several years ago led the so-called birther movement which questions whether Obama, who was born in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan father, was actually born in the United States.
The issue has not been a major factor in the campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election and by bringing it up again Trump takes the focus of his campaign away from topics such as immigration, trade and the economy, which he has been using to hit Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: